


Gehanna's Most Wanted

by EmeryldLuk



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist, Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demons everywhere, Gen, No Fluff, No Romance, No Smut, Survival of the Fittest, Trapped in Gehanna, falling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:13:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22746094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeryldLuk/pseuds/EmeryldLuk
Summary: Wrenched away from the world she knows during a pitched battle against an illegitimate child of Satan, Ashiroan, North Star finds herself badly injured and lost in Gehanna. Can she survive long enough to find a way out?
Kudos: 1





	Gehanna's Most Wanted

North yelled.

Fire crashed down on the right as the scaffolding fell.

Blue light outlined what remained of the town square.

Dust rose up in the swirling, hot air; the remains of one more exorcised demon mixing with the ashes that choked throats already.

North lowered her bow: a magnificent black, varnished longbow carved with faint swirling lines. Her soul memory allowed her to feel all of the exorcists around her, but the square was so cluttered with fighting, smoke and flames that she could only see Suguro and Shiemi next to her.

"Tiashe," she said, "did you see where Rin and Yukio went?"

His voice came from the bow in her hand. "Last I could tell, Rin was going to the center of the square. Yukio too most likely."

She looked to Suguro, relieved to see him being treated by Shiemi for the gash in his arm. Suguro nodded, his brow dripping with sweat. "Go. Find him."

"you'll be okay?"

"Promise. None of us are dying tonight."

North nodded and slung her bow over her shoulder. The bowstring loosened on its own so as to not cut into her skin.

"I hope we all survive this," Tiashe said. North sprinted forward in the direction she could feel Rin's soul throbbing.

"Of course we will." She ducked a stray blast of demon fire. "what's with the negativity?"

"You've seen what Rin's family can do. We can't beat them head on."

"Then we do what we can. We beat a Spiricule once."

"and you nearly died!" Tiashe huffed, sounding like an angry bit of air. "I never want to see you like that again."

A wall of blue fire surged up in front of them, cutting off the center of the square. North flinched back but felt no heat from the flames.

"Rin!"

There was no coherent response from the other side.

Taking a step back, North wove a net of electricity around her and pushed through the flames.

On the other side, Rin charged at his brother, flames pulsing from the horns on his head, tail whipping from side to side. His familiar was nowhere to be seen, probably dead or exorcised.

Yukio might have been the same, if not for the curved horns, the evil smile and the talons he used to throw royal fire at his brother.

The fountain, a loved city attraction for the flowers that grew around it and the statue of a nymph at its heart, glowed with unholy light, the water a sickly color.

"Rin!" North had her bow in her hand in less time than it took to think. She drew the string to her chin, an arrow wreathed in lightning formed in the same moment.

her arrow flew into the space Rin left as he cut at Yukio's left side. Yukio spun away, deflecting the sword and knocking down the arrow.

A second and third left the string before the first even hit the ground. North ran to the side, a splash of blue fire hitting the pavement.

"You should not be here, North," Rin insisted as he attacked. "He can't burn me."

"I will not let him take you." She loosed two more arrows. Rin moved in concert, trying to get Yukio off guard.

in a movement Tiashe could barely follow, Yukio had Rin disarmed and clutched in his talons. Rin gasped, blood trickling down his neck.

"North Star." 

North hesitated. Yukio's cold eyes met hers and she stopped where she stood with her bow drawn and ready.

He grinned, but it was everything but comforting. "Lovely to see you again."

North swallowed. "Let him go, Ashiroan"

Clucking his tongue, he tightened his hold on Rin. "Is that any way to speak to your elders?"

"Let him go or I'll put an arrow in your eye!" She focused her aim.

"Once, i might have believed that threat. You wouldn't dare kill your love."

"Except, I've been shooting arrows at you this whole time." Her hand started to shake. The yen coin hanging from a chain under her vest grew warm.

"Not to kill. Now be a good girl and put the bow down."

The looks Rin shot at her might have been pleading her to run or shoot anyway, but North started to lower the long bow as her thoughts raced for a way out.

Tiashe hissed in her mind, not wanting (insert demon name) to hear him.

"What do you think you're doing? He'll kill Yukio and kidnap Rin. This is no time to be soft hearted."

"do you trust me?" She asked in return. Yukio frowned at her.

Tiashe seethed, "what insanity are you planning now? Just shoot him and we can all go home."

"And if we can't?"

"You think too much for a kid."

"Says the kid. Please, trust me on this."

North let go, breaking synchronization. The long bow turned into a recurve and then into a thirteen year old boy with scruffy brown hair. Tiashe sat there on the pavement, shocked.

Lightning cracked. Yukio was knocked off his feet and Rin fell to his knees only a little worse for wear.

All her life, North had battled with a part of her soul that lashed out at the people around her. She had never remembered those moments, but with the seal on her skin, she used it now. North burned as bright as she dared, moving faster than Yukio could. Her punches did little damage, other than the tuning they did to Yukio's possessed soul. With a final thirteenth strike, lightning flew from her fist.

Yukio collapsed. North didn't stop, though she couldn't remember how she knew what to do next.

In her hand, a large knife made of bright blue light materialized. The blade was seven inches long, the guard black with a loop for a finger. From the bottom of the hilt hung a chain that wrapped around her off hand twice.

Yukio tried to dodge but her blade found its own way to him. She spun, throwing the chain in a loop around his arms and chest.

"I don't understand. You're an archer. Where'd the knife come from?"

She reeled in the chain, pulling Yukio within reach. He struggled, searching for a weakness in the links.

"Should have possessed someone that knew me longer, I guess." North raised the knife to strike.

Flames rolled away from him like a shockwave. North shrieked as the blue flames seared her skin. 

Rin pulled her back, drawing the fire to him with one hand. "Get back," he ordered.

"I am not leaving you," she insisted, holding a hand to her smoldering hair.

"Do you want to die?" Rin turned to her, exasperated. "There's nothing you can do here, North."

A giant hand of flames seized hold of Rin, lifting his feet off the ground. Yukio said, "as cute as it is to watch you two bicker, I have a deadline. Come brother. It is time to go home."

"No!" North lunged, throwing a bolt of lightning. Yukio dodged without losing hold of Rin, moving closer to the transformed fountain.

The waters bubbled, burning with a faint light within. The human architecture was now completely covered by the design of the Gehanna gate.

North threw her energy knife. It cut through the fire handlike butter, turning the massive claw to hot air. Rin reached for his sword as Yukio slashed with his real hand.

In a burst of lightning, Rin tumbled to the ground, somehow several feet from the fountain. North gasped as Yukio laid open her skin. She took a step back and bumped into the edge of the gate.

"Going to make me go through you first? Fool." 

they traded blows, him scratching her face and her punch glancing off his shoulder. She ducked a swipe and swung with her knife. He planted a foot in her chest.

The water was both cold and hot at the same time, though it didn't burn. North grabbed the edge, unable to pull herself out.

Yukio bent, fumbling at the hilt of the knife stuck in his ribs. He roared, eyes now blazing in anger.

"What is this thing!"

She grinned. "Wouldn't you love to know." She strained, only to have the gate drag her further in. Her hands slipped.

Rin was calling her name. North looked up at the demon and took a deep breath. Yukio reached out with a hand towards her.

Swiftly, she wrapped the chain tight around her hand and pushed back, further into the gate. The knife yanked on Yukio's soul. With a popping noise, the demon separated from Yukio. The last thing North saw before sliding under the surface was Yukio's terrified eyes staring at her.

With a groan, North pushed to her knees. She blinked, the colors blurring together like watercolor paints. Greens and gray layered from dark to light upwards to a sky of pinks and purples.

Under her knees, pebbles pressed into her skin under coarse grass. She dug her fingers into rock hard soil and squinted at a blur of blues that moved closer.

"You little twerp."

A boot landed a solid hit on her stomach. North rolled onto her side. The demon kicked her again.

"You ruined everything! I was winning! You just had to jump in the way and be all heroic. I'll kill you for that. Slowly."

North sucked in a breath and sent out a wide burst of electricity. He yelled, skipping back as sparks jumped over the stony ground. Blurry puddles came together into the shapes of twisted trees and then a couple of large boulders. Pink clouds drifted under an indigo sky streaked with lines of red.

Looking inward, North felt her heart skip a beat. Her energy levels had been low enough from fighting, but she knew it would not last much longer. There was nothing for her in this new place. She could feel no one but demons and those would be far more plentiful than she knew.

So, she let him take his anger out on her, gathering what strength she could.

In a single burst of lightning, North vanished from that place.

With her eyesight slowly improving, North found a track heading downhill from the entry point and ran. Her feet slid over the rough ground. An angry roar echoed from the forest behind her. North scrambled off the path, pushing aside thorny branches and climbing over stone plants. Some of them seemed to shimmer in the light.

She stumbled, coming to a sudden halt as the ground ended. A chasm thirty feet wide cut the mountainside in half. North could hear water running somewhere below, but the dark stone cut out any light further than a hundred feet down.

At the crash of breaking ground, North looked uphill. A thorned tree burst into flames.

"I'll find you, North!"

She ducked back under cover, scrabbling parallel to the chasm. The ground crumbled under her feet. Grabbing onto the nearest tree, her hand scraped on spiny bark that cut deep. She fell, rolling down the slope.

The tumble stopped when North hit a stone wall of boulders. She felt a snap in her shoulder on impact.

North groaned and pushed to her feet. Her shoulder protested, screaming that it would rather not move. A roar filled her ears.

She raised her head from the dirt once more. The ringing peeled between her ears with a note that cut out all other noise. Dust and woodchips were in the air like feathers in a storm. Something burned, shedding blue light on her scraped and worn hands.

She wanted to get up, but her arm no longer worked as it should. She coughed and rolled onto her back.

"Trying to run away?" There he was, standing at the edge of the blast zone. He laughed. "Go right on. I haven't had a good chase in ages."

North squinted at him. In the new light, without a human body, Ashiroan looked more like a demon. His horns were a little longer, twisting slightly inward, wrapped in barbed wire he wore like a crown. His eyes burned with a fierce red light. From the neck to the waist he was bare, a pattern on his torso almost like a burn scar, but somehow natural in appearance. He wore metal cuffs on his wrists, and more barbed wire around his hips. His greasy pants were paired with a wrapping of tiger skin and reptilian leather boots.

She rolled to her feet and sprinted away. He threw back his head and laughed.

"That's it, run!"

North tried to reach a flat out run, but pain surged in her shoulder. So, she held her broken arm close and moved as fast as she could.

Flames consumed a tree to her right. She ducked to the left.

She jumped between boulders as a tree burst apart. Shrapnel and gravel peppered her skin. North lost her balance and slid on the rocky ground several feet.

The chasm reappeared, cutting sharply in front of her. She swerved right.

The ground exploded too close. She stepped off the edge in search for her footing.

With her good hand, she grabbed a stone root sticking out of the chasm wall.

"Well, that is not the outcome I was hoping for."

"what did you want? Rainbows and butterflies?" North looked down, searching for the bottom.

"I wanted a bit of fun. You ruined my chance at a better life, at being remembered for something incredible. I was going to be a proper prince, not just my father's embarrassment."

"Sounds lovely," North muttered. Her fingers strained.

Ashiroan crouched at the edge. "That's the river of lost souls below you. Sheer rock walls for miles so there's no climbing out, and a current that never gives up. Fall in there and even I would be lucky to survive."

"You could pull me up," North suggested.

"Nope. Fall for all I care. In fact, I'm curious to know if you can survive. A human in Gehanna. Who knows, you might get killed off by a random demon. Or possessed."

"Wouldn't recommend that. Last demon to try died." North strengthened her grip, searching for a way to brace herself on the wall. Her feet only found smooth rock and dry dirt.

"Fascinating. I look forward to killing you later. Bye." He stood and turned away.

North glowered at the empty space, feeling her fingers slip faster now. she closed her eyes, wishing Yukio were there. Or Tiashe. She'd have been glad to see Garret or really just anyone. The last of her energy gathered in her palm, crackling uselessly. She might have had enough to strike the demon down, but hardly enough to pull herself up five feet of sheer rock.

She let go. It would happen eventually. North gave up on hope and dropped into the black.

The air whistled in her ears as she plummeted. What might have been a nice fall day became freezing winter, numbing her fingers.

When she hit the water, there was no great noisy splash. One moment, North could hear the river and the roar echoing on glassy walls, and the next nothing. The cold wet sank into her skin, drawing on the last of her energy. She breathed out, but not even the air bubbles were visible. The current yanked, pulling her to the surface. With a gasp she breathed frozen air, and then sank with the current back into the deafening silence.


End file.
